American – Page 6 – CARS-YDSE.com

1956 DeSoto Firedome Station Wagon

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I remember this car because Grocho Marks had DeSoto as a sponsor for his TV show, “You Bet Your Life”. One other point, again from memory, was that these cars had “Push Button Drive”, that used push buttons to change the gears for the automatic transmission. Other than these two pints, I can not find much on the Internet for this years DeSotos. Help me out and contribute some information as comments.

1951 Willys Station Wagon

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Shortly after WW2 the U.S. car market exploded. There was pent up demand due to the war diversion amd then the returning veterans coming home after the war needed cars. Willys did the minimal amount of re-design from the army jeeps and got the products out the door in 1946. This one, I think, is a 1951 but it is very similar to the Jeeps made from 1941-1945. The Willys-Overland Company built the product and became a part of Keiser.

The link below is to a page that briefly describes the car and its features.

After World War II, Willys released a series of Jeep-based vehicles, requiring a bare minimum of retooling. Notably, the two-door station wagon, introduced in 1946, was the first all-steel station wagon produced in the United States. Powered by a four-cylinder engine and priced from $1,495, this model sold strongly, and accounted for 21 per cent of total U.S. station wagon production by 1950.

1951 Willys Station Wagon

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1963 Plymouth Valiant

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This was a car that sold fairly well before this major style change. In 1963 the car was redesigned.

The Valiant was totally reskinned for 1963 with a 1⁄2 in (13 mm) shorter wheelbase; it had a wide, flat hood and a flat square rear deck. The upper belt feature line ran from the rear body, in a gentle sweep, to the front fender tip. Here it was ‘veed’ back and down to the trailing edge of the front fender. The roofline was flatter and sharpened in profile. The grille was a variation of the inverted trapezoid shape that characterized contemporary Chryslers, with a fine mesh insert. Advances in body structure, many accessories and a new spring-staged choke were promotional highlights. The Valiant was offered as a 2-door coupe or hardtop, a 4-door sedan and a station wagon. The hardtop and the convertible, with manual- or optional power-operated top, were offered only in the high V200 and premium Signet trim levels.

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1965 Plymouth Barracuda

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I took this picture many years ago and have not found another Barracuda in much better shape. This was a very cool car in its day and my cool Uncle Oscar had one for me to admire. Oscar was an engineer by profession and I’m sure he baught it because it was good value, not because it was “cool”.

The back window was huge. Here is a quote on that aspect of the car.

The fastback body shape was achieved primarily with a giant backlight, which wrapped down to the fender line. Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG) collaborated with Chrysler designers to produce this 14.4 ft² (1,33 m²) rear window, the largest ever installed on a standard production car up to that time.

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1955 Chevy 210

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While I was in college in Beaumont Texas in 1962-1968, many of my classmates had cars like this one. Some were four doors, some two doors and even one was a convertible. This car was a big hit for General Motors.

When Chevrolet introduced the 1955 Chevy in late 1954 it changed their history. What made the new Chevy so popular, then and now? It’s new 265 cubic inch V-8 was probably the most important feature in the motoring public’s eye. The 1955 Chevrolet also represented a completely new vehicle in styling and engineering. With its new styling and the option of a potent new “Turbo-Fire” V-8 it was the most changed Chevy and the most exciting car to ever wear the bowtie badge since WWII.

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1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe

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Shortly after the war, the US auto companies went from turning out tanks to making, well, consumer tanks. This 1949 model is in exceptional shape.

All Plymouths for 1949 were powered by a six-cylinder L-head engine that displaced 217.8 cubic-inches. There were four main bearings, solid valve lifters and nearly 100 horsepower on tap. A three-speed manual gearbox was standard.

The Series 18 Deluxe Six was available in either a four door sedan or two door club coupe. The sedan was very popular, accounting for 61,021 sales. It was not the most popular Plymouth of the year, those honors fell on the Special Deluxe Six Series sedan which sold for $1,629 and totaled 252,878 sales.

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Avanti, Ever Seen One?

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I love this car. It was introduced the same year as the Jaguar XKE and I still think its a great looking car, way ahead of its time. This shot was taken in July of 2003 and it looks very “Cool” even in 2009.

The Studebaker Avanti was a sports coupe built by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, USA between June 1962 and December 1963. Designed by a team of stylists employed by industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the Avanti featured a radical fiberglass body design mounted on a modified Studebaker Lark convertible chassis. After the closure of Studebaker’s factory in December 1963, The Avanti model name, tooling and plant space were sold to two South Bend Studebaker dealers. They introduced a slightly modified version of the car in 1965 under the brand name “Avanti II”, but neither it nor subsequent models assembled by a succession of entrepreneurs had any lawful connection with the Studebaker Corporation or its brand name.

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1939 Cadillac, Series 61

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This is the car the elite drove before World War II. It was modified version of the 193-1938 models. I snapped this one walking home from work in 2001 right outside of the UPS terminal in San Francisco. It could use a good paint job but seems to be in great shape.

Briggs The Series 60 was replaced by the 126-inch-wheelbase Series 61, offering the same body types and many of the Sixty-Special’s appearance features. Common to all 1939 Cadillacs were a:
* redesigned dashboard,
* newly optional vacuum-operated radio antenna,
* rubber rear fender protectors,
* and something called “Controlled-Action Ride,” a reference to a higher rear axle rotation center claimed to enhance ride comfor

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Cadillac would produce cars through late 1941 before switching to tank production until 1948.

1964 (1961-1967) Ford Econoline Truck

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Ford introduced the Econoline series in 1961 and ran it until 1967 when the style changed. It was based on the Falcon and was quite economical. Ford built Econoline vans, station buses and trucks. I read that the rear quarter windows seen in this model were an option. I can’t really tell what year this truck is but I guessed 1964 because it is in the middle of the range. I f you know, please leave a comment and let us know too.
© Fred Winograd copyright 2009

1950 Cadillac 62 Sedan

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Cadillac was THE car after the war. In fact the only competitor was the Lincoln Continental. In 1950, Cadillac redesigned its 1949 by changing the front grill and simplifying other body details. It also powered the car with a, for the time, powerful V8 engine. The following came from a web posting I read:

Briggs Cunningham, entered a near-stock 1950 Cadillac in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Driven by Sam and Miles Collier, it finished 10th overall — a performance unmatched by any other production luxury car — tearing down the Mulsanne Straight at around 120 mph and averaging 81.5 mph for the entire event. Cunningham himself drove a streamlined Cadillac-powered special that the French called Le Monstre. He went even faster than the Colliers, but lost top gear and finished right behind them. Perhaps most impressive, a British-built Allard J2, powered by the same Cadillac V-8, finished third.

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This car was in very good shape for a street car.